Three excellent articles Talking

This article by Jack Beatty in Atlantic Unbound gives an impassioned, angry, and absolutely first-rate run-down of all that went wrong in Florida. You'll probably know the basic facts but he puts it all together in a way that only a first-rate writer really can. Read it and you'll be glad you did.

A nice Salonish article in (you guessed it) Salon about why Bush's speech to the Democratic Texas House of Reps was a bit of a sham. A lot of Dems weren't allowed to come. Basically the one's who got invites were pretty much those who either supported Bush's candidacy or as much as did so. A nice metaphor for the reality behind Bush's bipartisanship. Good piece by Jake Tapper. Not sure any of the prestige press caught this.

Finally, this article in Saturday's New York Times is about the prison employees who administer executions in Texas. No Bush-bashing here. Just a very affecting and powerful description of an anguished job and the conflicted men who do it. Not light reading, but really good.